Ospreys team to play Ulster

The Ospreys team to play Ulster at the Liberty Stadium on Friday 4th October, KO 7.05pm, is as follows:

15 Richard Fussell

14 Jeff Hassler

13 Andrew Bishop

12 Ashley Beck

11 Eli Walker

10 Dan Biggar

9 Tito Tebaldi

1 Ryan Bevington

2 Richard Hibbard

3 Adam Jones

4 Alun Wyn Jones (Capt)

5 Ian Evans

6 Tyler Ardron

7 Justin Tipuric

8 Joe Bearman

REPLACEMENTS

16 Scott Baldwin

17 Duncan Jones

18 Aaron Jarvis

19 James King

20 Sam Lewis

21 Tom Habberfield

22 Matthew Morgan

23 Ben John

Tyler Ardron makes his first Ospreys start

Alun Wyn Jones makes his 150th Ospreys appearance

Head Coach Steve Tandy said:

“We are really pleased to be where we are in the table four weeks in and after three games on the road, but we aren’t going to allow ourselves to get carried away. There’s plenty of room for improvement in a few areas of our game, and we are going into a tough run of fixtures where we are going to have to move up several gears if we are going to keep building momentum.

“Ulster on Friday night is as difficult as it gets. They’ve got a strong squad with world class players in there, Lions, All Blacks and Springboks, and as they’ve shown over the last two seasons in getting to Heineken and PRO12 finals, they can beat anyone so we are going to have to be at our very best.

“It should be a cracking contest, and is the first of two home games on the bounce against quality opposition with Leinster at the Liberty next weekend. This is what we’ve been building towards in the opening weeks of the season and it’s a period that any rugby fan will be excited about.

“Our fans will have a massive part to play over these two games, helping to create the kind of atmosphere that the team can thrive on. The players really appreciate the support they get each week, and hopefully with two massive games coming up off the performance off the field will go up several levels as well as on it.”